|
About Us
beAutomated is a web development company located in San Jose, California that specializes in building custom plugins that add unique features and functionality to WordPress powered sites. |
|
Testimonials
“When I think of beAutomated, I think both Randy and Sean went above and beyond to help our organization and our partners without hesitation. They are very proficient at what they do and knowledgeable in their profession. I have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy working with beAutomated for many years to come.”
~ Cassandra L. Nash, Santa Clara County Black Chamber of Commerce
“beAutomated was able to expand both the functionality and design of the wine entering process for our competition website. They were wonderfully easy to work with and were able to quickly understand the goals of our project. And when we had questions, they were able to answer them and suggest the best solution to meet our needs.”
~ Marc Berger, Riverside International Wine Competition |
|
|
WordCamp Portland
This was Randy's first time attending WordCamp Portland. Here's what he had to say:
“I attended both days of the unconference. There were many awesome sessions to choose from such as ‘Business Aspects of Plugin Development’, ‘Plugin Development Q&A and Best Practices’, and Jane Wells speaking about ‘What’s Coming in WordPress 3.3’. Additionally, I met some great people there such as Jeff Brock, Joshua Ray, and Jeff Naramor. All in all I throughly enjoyed my time at WordCamp Portland 2011.”
|
|
Sean Goes to Hawaii
This was Sean's first time to visit the islands plus his first offical holiday from beAutomated. Here's what he had to say:
“I had a wonderful time on the island of O`ahu. This was my first trip there, and I loved the change in geography, climate, and culture. There's also nothing like swimming amongst tropical fish! I made an acquaintance with an executive at Roberts Hawaii—a major tour bus and excursion operator there—who generously offered assistance with any business we wish to explore in Hawaii. Aloha means love and respect.”
|
|
Plugin Strategy
 |
|
In our last blog post, Built To Last, we mentioned the necessity of building into the core of WordPress and never modifying existing plugins, themes, or core files. We wanted to expand on this topic a bit and explain more about these best practices with what we’re calling “Plugin Strategy”.
WordPress was traditionally a blogging platform and has evolved into a full featured Content Management System (CMS). It is even more than that to PHP developers. WordPress serves as a PHP framework—providing many tools and resources for developers to design their plugins with.
Despite all that WordPress has to offer developers, many don’t necessarily take the time to learn what all the core can do. This can mean reinventing the wheel by bringing in performance costing library files that otherwise aren’t necessary, making custom User Experience (UX) elements that don’t match WordPress, or creating plugins that are essentially islands to themselves based on how they store data and only mildly hook into WordPress.
Read full article
|
|
Built To Last
 |
|
In October 1972 the new Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system experienced what could have been a disastrous failure. An automated sensor that detected the train approaching the terminus station was supposed to slow the train down in preparation for the stop, however it reversed and sped up the train to 70MPH. The operator couldn’t prevent the train from running out of elevated track, resulting in the train falling onto the street below. Good thing this accident was part of a series of test runs with only a few individuals involved. Engineers fixed this and other problems in what was then a futuristic designed automated system that has since served the public well for nearly 40 years.
Not everything is built to last. Often times quality gives way to budget shortfalls or pressures to produce rapidly. Lackluster quality can in the worst case scenario lead to accidents and even death. Accidents cannot always be avoided, but they can often be prevented by planning well, providing detailed product specifications, building carefully, testing rigorously, and maintaining vigorously. With respect to websites, the areas one generally needs to protect are: image, operations, and valuable customer data. It makes sense to take as many measures as possible to prevent one’s Internet operations from ever becoming a train wreck!
Read full article
|
|